When visiting the UK, a lot of visitors stick to London – but there is so much more for you to see and all within easy access from London.

A recent survey of visitors arriving into London taken by Sightseeingtourslondon.co.uk showed that more than 30% of visitors to London from overseas, staying for longer than 3 nights do not go outside of London when they could easily.

So, if you if you are in London with kids you really will want to consider getting out and visiting Windsor. Why? Well simply because LEGOLAND is located there.

In fact, a day really is not enough but it is better than no time. You will be able to take yourself back to your former childhood memories and fins yourself riding on theme park rides that will make you feel like you are running away from the dragons. Or, you can take a ride on the water rapids and feel like you are a Viking.

There is a lovely little driving course that is set up for kids to feel like they are taking their driving test. They will be issued with a mock driving licence should they pass the course!

There are laser guns set up in an old-style ancient tomb and there is a lovely little pirate themed stunt show set up by acrobats. Your kids will feel in their element when visit LEGOLAND Windsor. You really cannot deprive them of the chance to go and see the wonderful world of LEGOLAND.

I recently had the chance to go ghost hunting at Alton Towers. It was an event I originally booked back in 2010 but for health reasons I was unable to attend. I have loved Alton Towers from the first time I went as a child many, many years ago and when I realised they did out of hours ghost hunting events it was something I had to do.

The event was booked through Haunted Happenings who are one of the UK’s premier ghost hunting companies. We arrived at Alton towers for 9pm and were advised by security to drive through the park and park the car next to the towers near the lake (this is eery in itself).

After stocking up on coffee for the long night ahead we sat through the safety breifing with the staff and went through the timetable of events for the evening.

Split into groups we were dispersed to various parts of the towers so at all times each group leader knew where the other groups are (no point in hearing footprints from another room when 20 people are walking about).

Theme park fans who enjoy getting wet n’ wild are celebrating this week as Holiday World in Indiana unveiled plans to open the world’s longest water slide.

The £6m ‘Mammoth’ is due to open in May 2012 and will be 1,700 feet long, 69 feet tall and will cover an area of over three acres.

In the meantime, thrill-seekers have plenty of other options before tackling Mammoth next year, as international travel search site Skyscanner discovered on an adrenalin-fuelled trip round the world’s best theme park rides.

Having opened at the end of March 2010 we decided to visit the Legoland Discovery Center in Manchester with friends a week after opening. Legoland discovery center is located in the Barton Square quarter of the Trafford center and has ample parking space at Barton square. If you park at the Trafford center its a 5-10 minute walk through to Barton Square.

As you would expect from Legoland the attraction boasts a huge amount of things to do for kids of all ages and adults with a 4d cinema showing a couple of films (I personally recommend Bob the Builder) an interactive dark ride, factory tour showing the lego making process which the kids help along with and numerous models on display and areas to build and test your own creations. The attraction also has cafe serving hot and cold drinks and snacks and for the little ones a soft play area. Model making classes/tutorials are held during the day with kids been taught by the professionals how to build a variety of models.

Ruthin Gaol is a old prison based in North Wales which was built in the seventeenth century and designed by architect Joseph Turner. The Gaol at Ruthin served as a Jail until 1866. The jail was extended after the prison act of 1865 to accommodate 100 prisoners then in 1877 the Gaol’s day to day running was handed over to the home office when it became H.M Prison Ruthin until its closure in 1916.

In 1926 the Gaol was sold to the local council for office and library use until in 2002 it undertook extensive restoration works in at a cost of two million pounds, after this work the Gaol opened to the public.

It may not sound like an interesting attraction to visit and its hardly advertised anywhere (hardly anyone I spoke to had heard of it). I was fortunate to be told about the prison by someone who lives locally.

It does provide a fascinating insight into prison life. Been able to see the way prisoners lived, took a bath, what food they ate really does make you grateful you weren’t a criminal back in the day of Ruthin Gaol.

A visit to Ruthin Gaol isnt going to take a full day but its an ideal place to spend a couple of hours, the staff are all very friendly and will go out of there way to help you understand items and they also have some art supplies to give the kids something to do.

New this season at Pleasure beach Blackpool is a sculpture garden installed on the location of the old dodgem ride, the dodgems have relocated to another area of the park and the building demolished to make way for the sculptures and water features. All comments as usual are welcome.

After enjoying a great day at Drayton Manor last Christmas we repeated the experience again this year, the kids will shortly be coming to the age when Drayton Manor and Thomas land will no longer be cool so I intend to visit these Christmas events as much as possible.

The event changed slightly this year with the big top christmas pantomine show getting replaced by a show in Thomas land with singing and festive activities taking the center of this.

As with last year they had more snow and the children and adults in the audience really enjoyed this, the snow although synthetic made a great day even better and really gives you that festive wake up call that’s been missing the previous 11 months of the year.

The zoo, 4d cinema and Thomasland were open and unlike last year the amount of food available on site was varied and most tastes catered for.

Mumbo Jumbo the UK’s newest record breaking roller coaster opened in Flamingo Land for the 2009 season.

The ride manufactured by S&S boasts the world steepest first drop at a angle of 112 degrees. The ride cost varies depending on who you speak to but the average price tag seems to be around 4 million pounds.

When the questioned about the strange name of the ride its a reference to other parks falsely boasting about their latest attractions been the worlds first etc… hmm wonder who they mean :).

The photographs were taken at various times of the day as you may notice from the dull skies.

I was fortunate enough to get to ride the Big Wheel that has been installed in Liverpool one at the weekend. The wheel sited on Chavasse Park and clearly visible from the Liverpool waterfront will stay at this site until the end of January.

Ride tickets are £6 for adults and kids over 1.4m in height. £5 for concessions and £36 for a private gondola and for the really extravagant £40 for the private VIP gondola. Each gondola seats 6 people apart from the VIP one which only seats 4.

The wheel is 60 metres high but because of its elevated position it stands 80 metres about ground level.

The Wheel takes 10 riggers a week to build and is transported from site to site on 11 trucks.

On the day we rode it the wind was very strong and the gondolas do rock about a fair bit especially a height. but saying that we really enjoyed it and the great views of the city and would definitely ride again on my next visit to Liverpool.

Follow the post below and take a look at the rest of the photographs and video to accompany this.

Ive been browsing through my images today and come across a load of the water chute at Rhyl Ocean beach amusement park which is now sadly closed. I decided to get a few of the water chute together and create a video/slideshow out of them.

November 8th 2009 the final day of the main season for Blackpool Pleasure beach. A season thats seen many up and downs with closed rides and rumours of a Beaver Creek takeover by Nickelodeon just for starters. This short video was put together on the final day at a trip I attended with Club Pleasure Beach.

Opened in 2009 Manta is the third B&M coaster at Seaworld in Orlando. Manta is the second flying coaster I have ridden after Air at Alton Towers in the UK. I really enjoyed Manta and at the time of year we visited in September the ride had hardly any queues.

For anyone who hasn’t rode I would recommend the back seat, its very intense and enjoyable.

I don’t really have that much more to say about Manta other than if your in Florida and you get the change to ride it, enjoy it

New for the 2009 season at Lightwater Valley is a rapid ride rented from Showman James Mellor. The ride will be at the park for the 2009 season after which point both parties will review it’s suitability for the park.

I visited the park in April on a warmish day and the ride has a constant queue with at least 15/20 minute wait times, I can imagine this will get alot bigger over the coming summer months when the temperatures rise in the UK.

The ride has took the place of the Pinfari Grizzly Bear coaster which stood at the park from 2004, this ride has since been sold. I certainly wont miss it.

This update contains approximately 25 photographs taking during April at the park.

Originally built by G.V. Llewellyn in 1911 the Southport lakeside miniature railway has been operating for nearly 100 years on the site alongside the marine lake in Southport. The first train ran on the 25th may 1911 when the railway was called Llewellyn’s miniature railway after the builder and creator, this was later renamed to the Southport lakeside miniature railway as it’s known today.

The original route was a straight line which was extended in 1938 to add a sharp turn under the pier into the second station on the line the Marine Parade Station. The original station at this end of the line was called Princess Park which was closed when the extension and Marine Parade stations were built.